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I'd be remiss if I didn't mention assistant coaches Vincent Johnson, Jaime Glass, Floyd Peterson, Matt Pentecost and Jim and Mike Thornton, who flew all the way from Texas for the City title game last Friday.

A special thanks to some of the great parents I've gotten to know this year: Donovan Carter Sr. Milton Knox Sr., Cecilia Knox, Lupe Lopez, Gena Sexton, Ralph Rosas, Cece and Albert Johnson, Jodie Jackson, Claudia Garrett, Tammye Burgess, Robin Jackson, Tasha Floyd, Laura and Tom Bartlett, Sam Laolagi and Blanca Escobar.

There are countless other support staffers who are always around, looking for a way to help. Carol Silver does the team programs, Dr. Bornstein and Dr. Paul, who keep the team well, film-making teacher Kevin Kelly, college counselor Laura Mitchell, the Birmingham Father's Club, and of course, the Sideline Shooter.

Last but not least, I'd like to thank coach Croson, his staff, and the players on the team. Thanks for allowing me on your sideline, in your huddles and your locker room. What a ride.

He is going on an official trip to UCLA (the school he's verballed to) this weekend, then on a family trip for a few weeks, then on a bunch of official visits --Colorado, ASU, once he gets back.

The general sense I got was the Carter still wants to go to UCLA, but he's always planned on taking other trips, and he's waiting to see who UCLA's new coach is.

Croson said he was taking the rest of this week off, to rest. The school goes on winter break after this Friday, so it's really more like getting a jump on winter vacation. But he takes this week off because there's a lot of grunt work to be done over the break with turning in equipment, recruiting, and just general transition stuff.

The one thing he said that was incredibly striking to me was that he'll only see this year's team, altogether, three more times. Today at 2 o'clock when the team meets to hand out their weekly awards, the team banquet in late January and sometime in the spring, when the team meets to pick up their championship rings.

``Everyone really starts scattering to the wind,'' he said.

``Why should the state high school title game fate of teams like
Birmingham, Long Beach Poly, Corona Centennial and Hart be decided by
10 people? Surely there's a better way. If you check up on the Ohio
High School Athletic Association's playoff system, you'll discover
there IS one. It boils down to a three-word methodology.

On the field.

Way WAY back on the third weekend of August, the Ohio High School
football season opened. Oh, you say that's too early? Tell that to
the players, coaches and fans of the 192 schools who participated in
the five-weekend OHSAA playoffs that concluded last weekend with six
state title games. I got to see all six games live on Sports Time
Ohio thanks to my DirecTV package. And I have all six games on DVD.

It took at least 22 years for Ohio to get it right, but trust
me...the OHSAA GOT IT RIGHT!!!

The OHSAA started a playoff system in 1972, but with just three
classifications. With only one team picked for the playoffs in four
regions in three classifications, it meant the whole state of Ohio
had only a dozen teams. The news media, fans, players and coaches all
said the same thing...that there weren't enough playoff teams. A slew
of 10-0 teams would essentially say, "Hey, we did all we had to do
but didn't make the playoffs."

Over the next 20-plus years, the number of classifications and
participating teams increased to the point where 96 teams would make
it. Then sometime last decade (1993?), It took a statewide vote of
all the OHSAA principals as I recall...and that vote meant the season
would have to start with the third weekend in August in order to
double the number of playoff teams and to increase the number of
playoff weekends by one. The vote passed...and according to the 2007
playoff program sent to me by John Dickerson, a friend who's a high
ranking commissioner with the OHSAA, indicates the six-division, the
OHSAA 192-team playoff format began 13 years ago in 1994. Virtually
every 10-0 team makes it...and it's rare for a 9-1 team to miss out.
I'm sure if you contacted John Dickerson, he'd be more than happy to
discuss with you the successful OHSAA playoff system. Texas has a
very good playoff system. If it's the same as when I was part of it
in the 1970's, it's league champions who participate...but I like the
Ohio playoff system MUCH BETTER. More teams!!!!

I suppose various forms of politics will keep California in the Stone
Age with its current antiquated playoff system. But California has a
HUGE WEATHER advantage over Ohio, so why have teams' title game
fates decided by 10 people when there's a better way?''

On the field.

Sincerely,
Rob Durkee, North Hollywood
A Former Sports Editor Not Afraid To Speak His Mind

``For the past ten years, I've been following CIF-Los Angeles City Section sports, with football being the one of the three main sports (basketball and softball being the other two), and I've never heard about, read about, or seen in person, a team as devastating as the one football team from Lake Balboa.

After Birmingham opened up a can of smackdown on San Pedro in the 2006 City Section title game, I pondered how can the Patriots either equal an effort like that, or completely top it all together.

The latter of my thoughts happened.

True, the loss to Crespi of Encino kept them out of the CIF State Division I Bowl Championship, but there will never be another team like them. I'll bet that Birmingham team can stack up pretty well with any of the top notch teams of Banning and Carson from the 1970's and 1980's.

Whichever college that picks up Milton Knox is getting the best running back all-time in the City Section. ''

The air inside Milton Knox’s house in Pacoima seemed to rush out in an instant. It took just five fateful words from state CIF commissioner Marie Ishida-- ``and representing the Southern Section’’ – for the Birmingham football team to realize its dream of playing for a state title had died.

In the end, it wasn’t the Patriots last game that counted most, but their first.

Birmingham’s 20-6 loss to Crespi of Encino on August 30 ultimately proved to be the deciding factor for the 10 section commissioners who voted to send Centennial High of Corona to the Division I state bowl game against Concord De La Salle Saturday night at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

Both teams finished 13-1, both had signature wins against tough competiton, but Centennial defeated Crespi 41-20 while Birmingham lost.

``That was a tough one,’’ said Ken Gunn, the event director of the games. ``After a long examination of the strength of schedule of (Birmingham, Centennial, Bakersfield and Long Beach Poly), all of those teams did a great job. Basically, it came down to two or our selection guidelines: head-to-head and record against common opponents. On head-to-head, Birmingham beat Long Beach Poly. On common opponents: Centennial beat Crespi and Birmngham lost.’’

Knox, the City Section’s all-time leading rusher and scorer, will be on the other side of the country during those games, on a recruiting trip to Florida, and said he’s too hurt right now to even think about them.

``I think that loss to Crespi will haunt us for the rest of our lives,’’ Knox said. ``Every guy on the team is going to be thinking about that game at night, thinking of things they could’ve done. It’s real hard right now. We made history this year. I don’t know if there will ever be another City team or Valley team that did the kind of things we did this year. But it’s hard right now.’’

Knox and the Patriots have plenty to be proud of. In addition to dominating the City Section, they scored upsets of Long Beach Poly and Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks in nationally televised games. They earned a national ranking in the USA Today Super 25 poll. They won their fourth City title in six years.

``The fact that we were even up there, on television and mentioned for a game like that is incredible,’’ Birmingham coach Ed Croson said. ``It shows that we can play with anyone in the state, anyone in the country. I can’t really think about (the Crespi game) because of what a good season we had.’’

But in the end, the only thing that mattered was the score on the first game of the year, on a 105 degree night at Pierce College. The game where their bus was an hour late to pick them up, the game where their starting quarterback was out with a broken hand, the game where their starting safety was still waiting to be cleared for a fifth year of eligibility. The only time all year Knox fumbled the ball.

``It’s amazing how one play, one game, can determine your whole season,’’ Knox said. ``It’s tough right now.’’

At 3 p.m. today, Birmingham will gather at Milton Knox's house in Pacoima --along with a camera crew from Fox -- and find out whether it has been selected for the Division I state bowl game.

Long Beach Poly's win on Saturday made that a lot more likely. Centennial of Corona is still a bit of a favorite, by virtue of its win over Crespi, but Birmingham looks a lot better than it did 24 hours ago.

Birmingham's 20-7 win over Long Beach Poly is looking very impressive right about now. What's more, Birmingham didn't just beat Poly, it dismantled them. The Jackrabbits only points came late in the fourth quarter, against Birmingham's second=string defense.

As, Birmingham has wins over two teams --Poly and Notre Dame -- that were ranked in the top 10 in the nation at the time they played. Taht's pretty impressive

Their lone loss to Crespi in Week Zero looms large, because Centennial beat the Celts. But when you consider now that Crespi lost to Poly, a team Birmingham beat, and Crespi beat MAter Dei, the team that beat Centennial, things are a lot more muddled.

A couple interesting facts about the Crespi game I learned last night. Before I write this, I want to say that this shouldn't take anything away from Crespi, which was playng incredible ball by the end of the year. But I found out that Birmingham had a couple of weird things happen to it that night. First off, the team arrived at Pierce College 30 minutes beore game time. Apparently, the bus it was supposed to take accidently took the team's band over first, causing the team to sit in the parking lot for over an hour, just waiting to go to the game.

Second, Birmingham was without starting QB Exavier Johnson who broke his hand three practices before the first game and starting safety Okechukwu Meke, who hadn't been cleared for his fifth year of eligibility yet

Then there was the 99-yard kickoff return on the opening kick that dug Birmingham into a 7-0 hole right away.

Interesting. Very interesting.

I don't envy the 10 commissioners who have to sort this thing out. Both Centennial and Birmingham seem very deserving. You can't really go wrong with either. But the decision just got a lot more complicated.

``As long as we're alive, we're going to be ready,'' coach Ed Croson said. ``And if that was the last game, well, it was a great season.''

I asked a couple of kids who were walking by the field the other day if they were excited about Friday. By the confused looks on their faces, I could tell they had no idea what I was talking about.

``What's Friday?'' one of the girls said. ``You mean like, the weekend?''

``No, the City championship game at the Coliseum,'' I explained.

``Oh, yeah. That's cool. Who are they playing?'' she asked.

``Carson,'' I said.

``Oh, cool,'' she said.

I relayed this conversation to senior defensive back Evan Jenkins, who has family in Texas and a cousin who plays at Oklahoma state.

``I'm not surprised,'' he said. ``The more we win, the less people here care. They think it's easy for us. But they don't even know how much goes into it. That's OK though. We don't let it bother us.''

Then I asked how different it was from the games he'd been to in Texas.

``It's totally different there. The locker rooms are like college locker rooms. They've got your name on your locker, your uniform is all hung up in there, your cleats are set out. The seniors have their own seperate locker room. There are tons of fans at every game. It's crazy.''

This isn't to say that there's a complete lack of fan support for the Patriots. Actually, Birmingham's sidelines and stands are almost always more full than their opponents. And I've come to know and respect a large group of support staff and administrators who are at every game, cheering for the team. But it's very clear this is LA, not Odessa, Texas.

``I just feel like there's never going to be another team from the Valley or the City like us,'' Jackson said.

Also for those with a computer and internet access: www.KBCsports.com will have a live broadcast of the game. Matthew Flores on the call.

Invitational: Kickoff, 4:00pm, pre-game at 3:50pm
City: Kickoff, 8:00 pm, pregame at 7:50pm

According to teammates, Rivera is a bit of a recruiting newshound. He knows all the top players, where they're going, where they are ranked. He even pays attention to the strengths and weaknesses listed by the scouting services on their profiles.

``You've got to know you're competition,'' he said.